Ahmadinejad’s UN Speech
The full English text of President Ahmadinejad’s UN Speech of 23 Sep 09 may be found here. The first thing to understand is that this was not so much a speech as a Shiite Islamic sermon. Read from that perspective, the speech makes a fair amount of sense … to Shiites but not, perhaps, to the rest of the World at whom it was directed. Let us examine the sermon to see what Iran really is saying through Ahmadinejad.
The opening statement is pretty much a standard Islamic greeting.
In the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful. All praise be to Allah, Lord of the Universe, and peace and blessing be upon our Master and Prophet, Mohammad, and his pure Household, and his noble companions. Oh God, hasten the arrival of Imam al-Mahdi and grant him good health and victory and make us his followers and those who attest to his rightfulness.
There are two things in this opening that separate it from a Sunni equivalent. First, the statement “his pure household”. Unlike Sunni Muslims who follow the instructions of Mohammad on the selection of the Caliph, Shiite Muslims believe that the Caliph must be selected from the lineage of Mohammad. Second is the plea for the arrival of the Mahdi. This directly relates to the Shiite belief that the Twelfth, or hidden, Imam will reappear during a time of great chaos to lead Islam to control the World.
Next Ahmadinejad talks about “two conflicting outlooks prevailing in our world”. The first is based upon the predominance of material interests.
The other outlook is one that spouses with the belief in the oneness of the Almighty God, follows the teaching of His messengers, respects human dignity and seeks to build a secure world for all members of the human community, in which every body can equally enjoy the blessings of sustainable peace and spirituality.
This is a direct reference to the establishment of the worldwide Caliphate.
Liberalism and capitalism that have alienated human beings from heavenly and moral values will never bring happiness for humanity because they are the main source of all misfortune wars, poverty and deprivation.
All problems existing in our world today emanate from the fact that rulers have distanced themselves from human values, morality and the teachings of divine messengers.
An exposition of Islamic values over the values of other religions and economic systems.
Messengers were sent by God to show the light of truth to human kind, they came to make people aware of their individual and social obligations. Piety, having faith in Allah and its judgment of human behavior or conduct in the next world, belief in the primacy of justice in both lives, seeking one’s happiness, well being and security in happiness, well-being and security of others, respecting human kind, making efforts to expand love and compassion against hostility were all on top of the teachings offered by the Messengers of God from Adam to Noah, Noah to Abraham, Moses, Jesus Christ and the last one Prophet Mohammad.
Perhaps we should read this in relation to the current Iranian government treatment of their citizens protesting the theft of the presidential election by Ahmadinejad.
If the belief in Entezar (a waiting patiently for the Imam to return) will turn into a common and we join hands to achieve prosperity for all, then there will be more real and increasing hope for reform.
If we all became Shiites everything would be just fine.
The only path to remain safe is to return to Monotheism (believing in the Oneness of God) and justice and this is the greatest hope and opportunity in all ages and generations.
This is perhaps the most important statement in the entire speech. It is the one consistent thing that has appeared in almost all communications of this type. It is the offering of Islam to the people listening to the speech and by extension to their nations. This same type of statement was at the end of Ahmadinejad’s letter to President George W. Bush. Islamic tradition is that a person or people must be offered the opportunity to accept Islam and become Muslims as a free choice. If they do not choose to become Muslims, then they become a target of jihad.
Osama bin Laden said almost exactly the same thing in the 1998 International Islamic Front declaration of war upon the United States and other Western nations. We all know where that has gotten us.